Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game character and the main protagonist of the Sonic video game series released by Sega, as well as in numerous spinoff comics, cartoons, and a feature film. The first Sonic game was released on June 23, 1991, in order to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendos flagship character Mario (see 1991 in video gaming). Since then, Sonic has become one of the worlds bestknown video game characters, with his series having sold more than 70 million copies. In 2005, Sonic was one of the first game character inductees into the Walk of Game.